ArticlePloS one2026
Cold stress during winter over North India: Patterns, trends, and mortality risks.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The cold temperatures during winter contribute to significant discomfort, causing cold stress to the lives of people. In this study, we investigate the cold stress conditions and their trends over north India during November - February for the period 1982-2020, using Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), a widely recognized biometeorological variable. The onset of cold stress typically initiates in the late evening (18 IST) and gradually spreads across the north India. It then intensifies over night into moderate cold stress, persisting from 20 IST until the early morning hours (7 IST). Cold stress is found to be most intense in January, with UTCI values ranging between 0 °C to -13 °C among winter months. During cold wave events, cold stress reaches its maximum spatial extent and intensity throughout the study region, with the most intense conditions observed in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Results show a significant increase in slight cold stress hours during the winter season over the period 1982-2020 in north India. This increase reflects a transition from stronger cold stress categories to the slight cold stress category. Such a shift indicates a reduction in the severity of cold stress rather than an intensification of cold conditions. Slight cold stress occurs when UTCI values range between 0 °C and -9 °C and the duration of such conditions has increased at a rate of 33.64 hours per decade. This increase is most prominent in the high-altitude regions of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh. In contrast, moderate cold stress which occurs when the UTCI values are in the range -9 °C to -13 °C shows a significant decreasing trend, particularly in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Despite this, cold stress remains a major contributor to cold wave-related mortality in north India. Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of deaths of 4449, followed by Punjab (2606) and Bihar (2479). Although these states generally experience only slight cold stress with UTCI values in the range of 0 °C to 9 °C, the impact is amplified by wind chill with a category of 'Tonic- very cold sub comfort' caused by cold, dry northwesterly winds blowing directly into the region. This compound effect of cold stress and wind chill considerably enhances the mortality risk during cold wave events across north India.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.